Comment: Disclaimer: Characters – me no own – belong to other lucky people like the folks at the WB and o’ course Melinda Metz.

Note: takes place after DoFP: Lost and Gone Forever

*~*~*

They barely made it back to town. The jeep sputtered and died asphyxiated with sand in the middle of the street two blocks from the café and they left it there. Max wasn’t worried - there wasn’t much traffic down Main Street at one in the morning.

Liz had told him that she and Alex would be working on a history project together at the Crashdown tonight. He hoped they were still awake. He and Isabel stumbled the rest of the way down the sidewalk to the café and fell though the doors. Liz and Alex had been leaning over mountains of note cards and poster boards and their heads shot up at the same time as the two aliens burst in.

"Max!" Liz paled at the sight of them and she and Alex immediately ran to help.

Max gently guided Isabel into Alex’s waiting arms, and he helped her sit down at one of the tables. Liz carefully touched Max’s cheek. Her fingers came away tinged with blood. He hadn’t realized he was bleeding. He brought his own hand up to heal the cut but couldn’t. He was too drained.

"Max what happened to you guys?" Max sank into the booth across from Isabel’s table and dropped his head into his hands, feeling like it was about to roll off his neck.

"We…we met with Nasedo tonight. In the desert."

"What? Why didn’t you tell us?"

"He didn’t want us to…We…we were going to use the stone…the communicator to reach home…and…oh God…" Max’s voice cracked and he broke down overcome with all the emotions he had desperately been trying to block out.

"Max…" Liz threw her arms around him, holding him close as he sobbed into her chest, stroking his hair, trying not to cry along with him. She looked over at Alex who was holding onto Isabel’s hand as she stared straight ahead. He looked scared.

"What happened to you?" She whispered, and Max pulled away suddenly, looking into her eyes.

"They’re dead. All of them. Nasedo killed the others on the ship. He made it crash somehow. And our planet…our planet’s destroyed…dead…no survivors…no one…no one left…just us. Nasedo. Me. Isabel. Mi-"

"Michael!" Isabel choked out and burst into tears. The stone slid from her lap and onto the floor as she buried her face in her hands. Alex took her in his arms, and she melted against him, holding him back, clinging to him like a life preserver in a tempest.

"Michael…" Liz murmured. Her eyes widened as she realized he was missing. "Max where is he? What happened to him?"

"Gone…gone…"

"Max…"

"He went after Nasedo…" She stared at him.

"We have to call Maria…" Liz got up from the booth, reluctantly letting go of Max long enough to grab her cell phone from her bag. She began to punch in her number when Max stopped her.

"Michael said he left her at his place. She was upset about something…he left her there asleep. He was worried about her…" Liz nodded biting her lip and dialed Michael’s number, almost hoping it would be him who picked up.

"…Hello…?" It was Maria. She sounded scared.

"Maria…something’s happened…Can you get to the Crashdown?"

"Liz what’s going on…"

"Maria I’ll tell you when you get here…"

"No Liz, tell me now…"

"…Michael’s…Michael’s gone."

Maria was silent, and Liz held her breath, waiting.

"I’ll be right there…" she finally whispered and hung up.

Liz put the phone down, and pulled Max back into her embrace. He sank into it willingly and she spoke over his head to Alex.

"She’s coming."

*~*~*

"Why didn’t you stop him!" Maria cried out accusingly and Max flinched with guilt.

"I tried too but he…he stopped me…and he ran after Nasedo. We tried to go after him…but there was the storm…It tried to kill us…there was nothing we could do…we had to leave him…"

"I can’t feel him…" Isabel moaned tearfully, finally able to speak. "I can’t feel him – he’s shut us out – both of us…"

"He’s out there alone…" Maria got to her feet, blindly reaching for her car keys on the table. "We have to find him!"

"It won’t let you!" Max shouted, grabbing her arm.

"You’re coming with me!" Maria shouted back, yanking herself out of his grasp. "You’re going to show me exactly where-"

"It will kill us if we try and fight it again!"

"I will kill you if you don’t." Maria said coldly and Max stared at her.

"It’s no use Maria." She didn’t say a word. She turned her back on them all and ran out of the Crashdown.

"Maria!" Liz called after her and pushed the front doors open just in time to see her get into her car and drive away.

"Liz." She turned at the sound of Alex’s voice. He tossed her his keys. "Go after her." Liz turned to Max, clutching the car keys to her chest.

"Will you be okay?" He nodded, his face white.

"Stop her…she doesn’t know…she doesn’t know what’s out there…"

*~*~*

Liz followed the faint glow of Maria’s headlights down the foggy highway. The air itself was…ominous - there was something horrible hovering over the desert tonight. Liz could feel it the second she left the town. She was scared. Scared for Maria, for herself, for Michael.

Maria pulled over to the side of the road suddenly, and Liz stopped Alex’s car beside hers and got out. She had parked in front of a pair of skid marks stretching from the road to the desert like deep black bleeding scars on the gravel. Maria was running into the desert, screaming Michael’s name into the wind, her voice becoming more and more hysterical as she received no answer. In the distance, Liz could see the sandstorm, waiting to see what they would do, how far they would go. It was getting angry. It gathered itself up, preparing to strike.

"Maria!"

"Liz he’s here…he’s here somewhere…he needs us…he needs our help!" Liz grabbed her friend’s arm and started to frantically pull her back to the cars.

"Liz – NO!" Liz stopped struggling with her and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look up at the sandstorm stealthily creeping towards them. Maria’s eyes went wide and Liz took that moment to drag her back onto the road. As long as they were on the road they were okay. It would leave them alone.

The sandstorm floated before them menacingly, a wall of swirling dirt and sand, blocking the way. Smug. That’s what it was.

"I’m not afraid of you…" Maria whispered staring at it, taking a step forward. Liz grabbed her arm.

"Maria…it’s evil…it’s-"

"I don’t care!" She jerked her arm away and started to run towards it. Liz tackled her from behind. They landed at its base and it reared up, waiting. "Maria stop it!"

"He needs me!"

"I need you! I need you to be strong! I need you to let this go…" Maria stopped fighting her and squirmed around to look her in the eye.

"You mean let him go – let him die."

"Maria we don’t know…maybe he’s okay…"

She laughed sharply and jerked her head in the direction of the wall.

"Yeah he’s fine" Maria shoved Liz off of her and got to her feet, the sand barrier shifting at her back. "If it was Max out there…if it was Max you’d want to do this…I would help you."

"No you wouldn’t Maria. You would tackle me. You would sit on my back and yell at me until I realized what kind of danger I was in."

"I love him Lizzie."

"I know…" she whispered as her friend turned her back on her to face the storm once again. Liz came up behind her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "He wouldn’t want you to risk your life like this. He’d want you to be safe." She said nothing, and wrapped her arms around herself, still staring at the sand, daring it to dare her. Liz grabbed her hand.

"Maria please", she whispered, openly crying. "Don’t do this. I don’t want to lose you…Alex and I need you…we all need you…"

"Michael-"

"Maria we don’t even know if he’s out there…" Maria turned to her, and Liz’s eyes pleaded with hers.

"He’s out there." She whispered and turned, walking back to the car. Stunned, Liz followed, and sat down beside her on the hood of Amy’s jetta.

"The second this thing is gone I’m looking for him." Liz opened her mouth to say something, but Maria held up a hand silencing her. "I know I won’t find him. But I can’t just leave…You don’t have to stay with me. I won’t do anything stupid, I promise. They need you at the Crashdown. Max needs you."

Liz shook her head, wrapping her arms around the girl who had been her best friend for as long as she could remember.

"I’m not leaving you."

They sat there together until the sun came up, not talking, just waiting. The first rays of light sliding over the horizon pierced the sand wall repeatedly until it crumbled and was gone. Liz looked up at her friend to see what she wanted to do. Maria was staring at the empty air, dusty tears streaming down her face. She took a shaky breath and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, her eyes scanning the desert one last time. She closed them with a finality that tore at Liz’s heart.

He was gone.

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